Chapter 5 One indeed

Over the years as Julianna had moved through middle school to high school, no trio had bullied her more than Gina, Lyn and Zexa. There were certainly still others but around the neighbourhood and when she worked odd jobs none of them had remained as consistent in bullying as Gina, Lyn and Zexa because they were all agemates and had always been in the same class as herself. They made life on the outside as terrible as being in her house and listening to her father's demeaning words felt on the inside.

Zexa seemed to be the one who called the shots amongst the three girls and she was the one with the flowing dark hair and appeared to be a head taller than Gina and Lyn. She was a big fan of Gothic dressing, all black everything with leather bands for accessories and dark kohl lining her almond-shaped eyes at all times. Julianna genuinely wondered sometimes if she slept with the dark kohl eye lining because there was never a time she had seen Zexa without them. Gina and Lyn were the blonde-haired twins who in contrast to Zexa dressed in girly colours like pink and purple, and wore feminine jewellery made of trinkets and charm bracelets that jingled when they clapped or walked. They were identical and practically another source of nightmares to Julianna who escaped one only to run into another on some bad days, almost appearing out of nowhere like an apparition to her. Julianna smoothly slid off the slab and quickly darted her eyes around looking for the quickest route of exit. She wasn't sure she could take the three little devils taunting without bursting into tears, she had already been through a lot today. "Nah-uh, you can't possibly be thinking of running. Won't we exchange pleasantries? We haven't seen in what" -Zexa turned to her companions -" a week?" "Yeah. She has been in hiding for real", drawled her companions as they inched closer to crowd Julianna and narrow her chances of escape. "Classes have been boring without you ", purred Zexa. The new school session had started with a career clinic where their high school principal had invited notable people in the society who were once students of the small town's high school to come to mentor the students in choosing career paths. The clinic had run for a week for a certain fee before the normal resumption of classes. Their principal claimed that the money raised would be used to revitalize certain areas of the school that badly needed revitalization. Such as the cute little greenhouse, practical laboratories especially for the science students, flooring the parking lot and repainting the entire building. He was even considering raising their fees in the long term as this measure was only a temporary solution. Julianna had not been able to go because she couldn't afford to pay the career clinic fee and still comfortably afford her school fees for the rest of the session. So she had to forgo the clinic and stay home for the first week of school making sure not to walk the streets around closing time to prevent precisely what was happening to her right now. Julianna took a step backward only to bump into one of the twins. Gina wrinkled her nose and pulled out a perfumed handkerchief which she used to lightly filter the air she breathed in because was suddenly more into her personal space. "You smell like a dead rat. You haven't cared to have a bath in a week because you weren't coming to school? Ewww, Smelly-Jully", finished Gina as she pushed Julianna away from her with her other free hand towards Zexa's direction. Julianna fell forward but Zexa stopped her on time before she could stumble any further and pushed her, really hard, into Lyn's direction. "You're not worthy at all of any kindness, if not, I would have told you the perfect time to search the trash bins along Oblivion Street and I would have left you a deodorant in the trash. So you could at least help your life with it." "You're too generous, Zexa. Why would anyone want to help Smelly-Jully with her scrawny hair and thin arms and legs? You should leave her to get blown away by the wind. Cadez do not need trash like her lounging around and infecting the air of the town", countered Gina with a laugh while Lyn bobbed her head earnestly in concurrence. Zexa smiled, "Maybe the wind would also blow away that shanty of a house that Jully and her miserable parents live in. You know my father has been toying with the idea of bringing it up with the town's community board. It will be nice to see them run with it." Juliana's eyes widened with fear, Zexa's father was truly the town's mayor. Juliana knew him, a burly man with a matching moustache and beard. He wore thick-rimmed glasses and had this light woodsy scent around as the one who gave Zexa her dark hair colour. It was no news that he spoilt Zexa silly, she being the only girl the family had. Even if Zexa was lying about this, she might as well just be able to suggest it with his dad and as there was no love lost between Juliana's family and the majority of the community, the majority may vote in favour of the destruction. But throw them out of their house? Where would they go? Who would have them? They were already the brunt of the town folk's gossip especially her father who constantly got drunk and caused a nuisance in their small town. "Ewww, wipe this misfortune off my hands puh-leez", commented Lyn drily as Dexa pushed Julianna into her arms. Julianna really hated the way they casually abbrieviated her name to "Jully" and made it rhyme so easily with "Smelly". As she stumbled forward to kiss the warm ground she thought of what Lyn just called her. Misfortune, that was a new one indeed.